Knowledge Criticality Assessment and Codification Framework for Major Maintenance Activities: A Case Study of Cement Rotary Kiln Plant

Maintenance experts involved in managing major maintenance activities such as; Major overhauls, outages, shutdowns and turnarounds (MoOSTs) are constantly faced with uncertainties during the planning and/or execution phases, which often stretches beyond the organisation’s standard operating procedures and require the intervention of staff expertise. This underpins a need to complement and sustain existing efforts in managing uncertainties in MoOSTs through the transformation of knowledgeable actions generated from experts’ tacit-based knowledge. However, a vital approach to achieve such transformation is by prioritising maintenance activities during MoOSTs. Two methods for prioritising maintenance activities were adopted in this study; one involved a traditional qualitative method for task criticality assessment. The other, a quantitative method, utilised a Fuzzy inference system, mapping membership functions of two crisp inputs and output accompanied by If-Then rules specifically developed for this study. Prior information from a 5-year quantitative dataset was obtained from a case study with appreciable frequency for performing MoOSTs; in this case, a Rotary Kiln system (RKS) was utilised in demonstrating practical applicability. The selection of the two methods was informed by their perceived suitability to adequately analyse the available dataset. Results and analysis of the two methods indicated that the obtained Fuzzy criticality numbers were more sensitive and capable of examining the degree of changes to membership functions. However, the usefulness of the traditional qualitative method as a complementary approach lies in its ability to provide a baseline for informing expert opinions, which are critical in developing specific If-Then rules for the Fuzzy inference system

Knowledge Management and Experience Transfer in Major Maintenance Activities: A Practitioner’s Perspective

Major overhauls, outages, shutdowns and turnarounds (MoOSTs) are significant maintenance interventions needed on a periodic basis to optimise the performance of physical industrial assets (PIAs). However, uncertainties in the forms of emergent and discovery work which sometimes cause delays and cost overruns are quite common partly because, MoOSTs are characterised by inherent challenges such as, but not limited to, short execution spans, volatility in ever-evolving schedules, task complexities as well as huge offline production and/or operation costs etc. Furthermore, in the literature, other complex elements which further constrains decision-makers in MoOSTs from satisfactorily achieving predetermined objectives have been identified, one of which is the lack of a formalised approach for capturing tacit knowledge from experienced practitioners. Consequently, because MoOSTs is an applied discipline, significant human endeavours are required in the planning and management, which makes it pertinent to examine and obtain the perspectives of experienced MoOSTs practitioners. Therefore, the aims of this study are two folds; firstly, to examine the extent of alignment between findings from literature as it relates to the challenges encountered during MoOSTs, as well as probe their underlying causes in practice. Secondly, to show how relevant the findings from this study would be in providing a baseline for establishing a proposal for capturing MoOSTs knowledge and the transfer of experience. The research approach adopted; thematic synthesis of themes which emerged from knowledge management challenges in MoOSTs identified via an earlier systematic literature review (SLR); and then, the identified challenges were validated through conducting interviews with practitioners. Demography analysis as well as specific MoOSTs related questions were administered via questionnaires, which were then analysed using frequency analysis method. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the perceptions of practitioners on pertinent MoOSTs issues. Both questionnaires and interview questions were formulated by findings obtained from the SLR, so as to examine whether the knowledge management challenges identified in the literature exist in practice, and if they do to what extent. In total, the selected responses of 49 practitioners, with origin across five industries were examined to determine the extent of alignment between literature and the practice-based perspectives. Based on the results, nine challenges were identified as critical themes, six of which were associated with managing knowledge. The study identified not only known constraints from literature but also their underlying causes based on the perspective of practitioners involved in multiple MoOSTs, which is crucial for developing sustainable mitigation. A unique contribution of this research is the mapping of demographic information such as industry, country, job class, years of experience, MoOSTs organization size, frequency for performing MoOSTs, etc., to responses obtained from participants, which has not been shown in literature prior to now. The importance of such rigorous efforts in the research design, is crucial for enabling the adoption of holistic approaches to eliminating the underlying causes of challenges encountered in MoOSTs, based on first hand reporting of people involved. In addition, the relevance of such first-hand analyses of responses obtained from this study; serve as baseline for the introduction of the proposal to adequately manage knowledge management issues in this discipline

Development of an Interactive Web-Based Knowledge Management Platform for Major Maintenance Activities: Case Study of Cement Manufacturing System

The expectations of organizations within industries that perform MoOSTs when adopting knowledge management (KM) as part of their organizational process are to improve the ability to execute their core business functions in the process of capturing as well as retaining expert knowledge. However, existing literature is limited in MoOSTs-specific knowledge management systems (KMS) that can assist with experience capturing, collation and transfer. This is partly due to the challenges associated with the ability to design, implement and test the efficacy of such KMS in practice, owing to many intricately identified knowledge barriers within MoOSTs. In this study, through a cement manufacturing process case study, a proposal depicting a typical KM process within MoOSTs is presented along with an early stage interactive web-based KMS for MoOSTs. The developed KMS is termed MoOSTs knowledge platform (MoOSTsKP). The MoOSTsKP was evaluated by experts for its fluidity, resilience, and adaptability to different MoOSTs organizations, which are crucial elements for integration into existing MoOSTs information technology (IT) systems. The MoOSTsKP is identified with having many benefits including prioritization of MoOSTs activities based on an in-built criticality assessment model, which enables MoOSTs experts to instantly identify priority knowledge classes and in turn rationalise the workload associated with knowledge capture and reuse. Based on expert opinions, it is envisaged that the proposed MoOSTsKP would contribute immensely towards the alleviation of challenges associated with incessant loss of vital expertise

Development of an Interactive Web-Based Knowledge Management Platform for Major Maintenance Activities: Case Study of Cement Manufacturing System

The expectations of organizations within industries that perform MoOSTs when adopting knowledge management (KM) as part of their organizational process are to improve the ability to execute their core business functions in the process of capturing as well as retaining expert knowledge. However, existing literature is limited in MoOSTs-specific knowledge management systems (KMS) that can assist with experience capturing, collation and transfer. This is partly due to the challenges associated with the ability to design, implement and test the efficacy of such KMS in practice, owing to many intricately identified knowledge barriers within MoOSTs. In this study, through a cement manufacturing process case study, a proposal depicting a typical KM process within MoOSTs is presented along with an early stage interactive web-based KMS for MoOSTs. The developed KMS is termed MoOSTs knowledge platform (MoOSTsKP). The MoOSTsKP was evaluated by experts for its fluidity, resilience, and adaptability to different MoOSTs organizations, which are crucial elements for integration into existing MoOSTs information technology (IT) systems. The MoOSTsKP is identified with having many benefits including prioritization of MoOSTs activities based on an in-built criticality assessment model, which enables MoOSTs experts to instantly identify priority knowledge classes and in turn rationalise the workload associated with knowledge capture and reuse. Based on expert opinions, it is envisaged that the proposed MoOSTsKP would contribute immensely towards the alleviation of challenges associated with incessant loss of vital expertise